Confessions
by Cyberwolf
Summary: Tenten is trying to tell Neji something. He's not quite getting it. [NejiTen]
1. Don't Lie

_Tell me. Do people meet to get separated?   
I'd like to think it's a mistake_

- Jounetsu, Tokyo Underground OP

* * *

They still talked about it, in Konoha. The allegations of mental instability, the textbook-perfect assaults, the dramatic increase in hospital-use. It spawned a ballad that was sung from one end of Fire Country to the other. Jiraiya had used it – and, it was alleged, encouraged the ballad as free oral advertising – to pen one of his most successful issues of Icha Icha Paradise ever. More importantly, it had been the first issue of his that Tsunade had ever read, laughing hysterically the whole time.

(Afterwards, of course, she had punted Jiraiya through the ceiling for his perverted drawings)

And it was all because Tenten had asked the other girls' help with her increasingly potent feelings for Hyuuga Neji.

* * *

Actually, it wasn't so much that she asked for help than Ino and Sakura had gotten her drunk, and she had spilled her deepest secrets in a blubbering mess. In between sobs of how he _never_ noticed her, _never_, and how much she just wanted to _hold_ him when he got that dark, angry look in his eyes, Tenten cried out that she loved him.

Ino and Sakura, who had really only wanted to know what the hell her last name was, were beside themselves at this unexpectedly juicy discovery. They stopped feeding her liquor and started with comfort-food, plying Tenten with sympathy, tissues, and chocolate-fudge-ripple ice cream with cookies. They swore up and down to do all in their power to make Hyuuga Neji realize how much an idiot he was being – Tenten managed a half-hearted swipe at them, which never connected and only earned her '_Awww'_sat how loyal she was to an undeserving bastard such as him – and spoke aloud of aphrodisiac flowers, medic-nin potions with much the same results, or truth-telling chemicals.

It was Hinata, who had shrunk back and hoped not to be noticed (and force-fed liquor as Tenten was) who actually made the suggestion they would seize on. Perhaps it was because she wanted to see _someone_ confess to her secret crush, being as she could not do it herself; maybe it was because she wanted to see her cousin and her friend happy; or maybe it was simply to shut the other three girls up before they ranted any more on how devastatingly sexy Neji was (a severely drunk Tenten) or how to get him to _do things _(Ino and Sakura) and possibly damaged Hinata's psyche forever.

"Why don't you _t...tell_ Neji-niisan that y…you l…love him?"

* * *

Of course Tenten could not do this straight-up blunt, the way Ino and Sakura had used to proclaim their affection for _Sasuke-kuuuun!_ back in the day. Considering what had happened between then and now, that might have been a good thing. So Ino and Sakura, running with Hinata's initial idea, came up with another plan.

* * *

The male members of Team Gai were seriously unnerved. When your capable, reliable, _unromantic_ team-mate suddenly takes to giggling lightly, and giving breathy, wistful little sighs, and gazing off into the distance with dreamy eyes, you feel a little as if your world has fallen out of joint.

Lee, surprisingly, was the first one to correctly diagnose her condition. "Our beautiful flower," he proclaimed to Neji and Gai, "has discovered someone with whom she wishes to share the full blooming of her YOUTH!"

Gai gasped and then grabbed Lee in a hug while they wept over how time flew, and how beautiful Tenten's springtime of youth was, and the unspeakable glory of it all. Meanwhile, Neji, after taking a minute to puzzle out Lee's meaning, had quietly erupted in a searing bonfire of angry chakra.

"What?" he gritted out between clenched teeth.

"I _said_, Tenten has found someone to share her blooming with," Lee repeated patiently. Neji made a face at how _wrong_ that sounded. "That means," Lee explained further, having realized that sometimes Neji was dense and didn't understand perfectly clear sentences of YOUTH POWER, "that she's in l-"

"Shut up!" Neji snarled at him. "Don't spread such filthy lies!" He stomped over to his female team-mate, intent on proving Lee wrong.

"Tenten," he demanded, "You're not in love with anyone, right?"

Startled, Tenten looked up at him. Neji made another face – though, as he was a Hyuuga, that merely consisted of a slight wrinkle in his brow – as he realized she had been braiding daisy-chains _Daisy-chains._ Who had kidnapped Tenten and left him with this girly substitute?

Tenten opened her mouth for the automatic denial – then closed it, slowly, as she remembered her plan. "Y…yes, yes I am," Tenten finally admitted, quietly, staring down at her hands and the small white flowers in them. She peeked up for Neji's reaction.

Which was none.

"I see," he said coolly, and strode off. Tenten bit her lip, before she was glomped onto by two sobbing Green Beasts who had to be reassured that her new lover – she choked at the word – would not take her away from them.

"No," Tenten said softly, staring at where Neji had gone, "I don't think he'll distract me very much from training."

* * *

Neji Kaiten'd a thirty-foot-deep crater into solid bedrock that day.

* * *

tbc 


	2. Who Is He?

* * *

_so undeniably yours,  
as long as i'm losing it so completely_

- Must Be Dreaming, Frou frou

* * *

Tenten was rethinking her plan. Neji had not reacted at all. Maybe he…maybe he didn't care? She winced. 

If that was the case, she had two options: dropping the plan entirely – and being faced with the disappointment of three very determined kunoichi, or at least two very determined and one stammering, kind, don't-hurt-her-poor-thing kunoichi.

Or, she could flat-out _tell _Neji that she was head-over-heels for him, since he wouldn't expend the effort to figure that out for himself.

Neither option seemed particularly appealing.

"Who?"

Startled, Tenten whirled to confront the object of her recent thoughts. Neji was standing over her, pale eyes burning. She gaped at him. "Wh-what?"

"Who. Is. He?" Neji enunciated clearly, every word absolutely flat and without inflection. "Who is…the one you're in love with?" Subtly, so subtly she wasn't quite sure it had actually happened, Neji's voice cracked at the end.

Inwardly Tenten rejoiced. He _did_ care! Fighting off the urge to do a series of backflips clear across the field, she looked down at her hands, clenched in her lap, and grinned wildly for a moment. Composing herself, she looked up at Neji from under her lashes. "Oh, you know him," she purred.

Neji reeled for a moment. He had never seen Tenten look so…so _coy_, sooty eyelashes veiling suddenly smoldering eyes, her voice pitched to a sultry deepness. And then he realized she was thinking of…of _that guy_ while being so…_nn_, gah…and now he _really_ wanted to kill him goddammit.

He narrowed his eyes at her, silently demanding more explanation.

Tenten let her lips curve into a small smile. "He's a genius…" She blinked. Where had Neji gone?

* * *

Shikamaru heaved a sigh of absolute contentment. A quiet hillside, a cool day with just the right amount of clouds in the sky, and best of all no blonde kunoichi(s) agitating at him to get off his lazy arse and _do something - anything!_ Bliss. 

Thoughtfully he chewed on a stalk of grass. That cloud looked like…a dog. A little like Inuzuka's overgrown mutt, actually. That one looked like a bowl. Then there was a fluffy stag, with two streamers of cirrus for his antlers, and a baby deer beside him – Shikamaru, who was actually rather fond of his family's charges, smiled a little – and those two patches of white looked like a Hyuuga's angry eyes in full-blown Byakugan.

Then he realized those _were_ a Hyuuga's eyes in full-blown Byakugan, and they were glaring at him from the tense-jawed face of Hyuuga Neji.

"Can I…help you?" Shikamaru said slowly, raising himself up on his elbows. Any other shinobi, picking up on the _killkillKILL_ vibe from the furious Neji, would have run; but Shikamaru disliked physical exertion.

If he'd known what was going to happen, he would have _sprinted. _He would have sprinted around Konoha a hundred times, if necessary.

"HAKKE KUSHOU!"

* * *

Neji returned to his training-grounds, all but strutting. Now that he had proven how unworthy a match Nara was – honestly, what did all the girls _see_ in that lazy jackass – Tenten would drop him like a hot potato. She would never consider someone so inept in combat, of course. Only a _true_ warrior could keep up with the mistress of blades, someone strong, and powerful, and swift. Someone who could fight her head-to-head. Someone, perhaps, with the ability to see in 360 degrees? 

Also, he had saved her the inevitable heartache of when Nara returned to his blonde harem. Really he was being very thoughtful.

And then he realized, when he got to the training grounds and saw Tenten carving a dragon out of a hunk of wood - while _giggling_ - that nothing had changed after all.

The dragon was holding _hearts_ in its cartoony claws.

Tenten knew that Nara was in the hospital. All of the members of their little clique did, what with Yamanaka's ranting and raving about it, and the veritable _mountains_ of flowers she had enlisted her girlfriends' aid to carry to his room. (This consisted of Sakura getting Naruto to help – predictably he had conjured up a battalion of Kage Bunshin).

And yet here she was, still lovesick, and not seeming to really care about her supposed lover's convalescence. Which meant…

He'd gotten the wrong guy. Neji cursed underneath his breath.

* * *

"So…" Neji coughed, congratulating himself on his ability to act so casual. "Who is he?" 

Tenten stared. Number one, hadn't he figured it out yet? Number two, why was he acting so weird? She sighed a little and decided to drop a few more hints. "I told you, he's my genius – best in his class…" She stared at him expectantly.

Neji nodded. It _wasn't_ Nara.

* * *

"What do you want, Hyuuga?" 

"HAKKE ROKUJUUYON SHOU!"

And Uchiha Sasuke, never even having the time to activate his own doujutsu, went sailing off with all his tenketsu closed.

* * *

Neji glared, irritated, as Tenten absent-mindedly doodled hearts and flowers and the odd weapon in the dust with the tip of her kunai. She was out of it. She was _so_ out of it she was willingly exposing her weapons to unnecessary wear-and-tear and dirt. If someone had told him that last week he would have laughed and told him to pull the other one. 

Alright, so he wouldn't have laughed.

Or spoken.

But he would have stared flatly.

So it wasn't Uchiha. It wasn't Nara. Who in all hells was it, then?

* * *

"He's the pride of his clan…"

* * *

This time it was a multiple job, just to make sure. He took out Aburame and Inuzuka at one go, ambushing the two boys while they were sparring – and the satisfaction of protecting Hinata-sama from their unholy attentions, as well as Tenten, was icing on the sweet sweet cake of bodily harm. 

Then he struck at Akimichi…a little surprised at how much of the bigger boy's bulk actually _was_ muscle, as he kept saying, but victorious nonetheless. Furthermore, the tenketsu he'd struck effectively kept the boy from eating except through a tube, thus lowering his style-dependent combat effectiveness for quite some time – and the monthly income of most of the convenience stores and groceries of Konoha. They proceeded to curse the name of Hyuuga Neji…

Silently, though.

He'd already taken out Nara, but if Yamanaka and the sand-fan girl hadn't been mounting vigorous and glaring guard on his doorway, he would have gone and loomed threateningly over the mostly comatose boy's bed too.

* * *

It wasn't enough. Tenten still persisted in her mind-numbingly cute romantic sighing and cooing, gazing into the sky abstractedly. 

She was so involved with daydreaming about her mysterious beloved that she looked annoyed when Neji asked about him. _She_ was annoyed at _him?_

This guy had a lot to pay for. Tenten had never been annoyed at him before. (Neji had a very selective memory)

* * *

"He's got these extraordinary eyes, rare eyes, eyes you can get lost in forever…"

* * *

Neji had to go away and think about that one for a while. Rare eyes? She might have been describing Uchiha Sasuke, with that blasted Sharingan of his, but he had already taken care of the brat. And every other candidate had the dark eyes common of Konoha, so they couldn't be described – not even by a lovesick girl – as rare. 

Neji was pondering this in his room, pacing, when he saw his cousin walk by with an abstracted expression. He was struck by how similar that expression was to Tenten's today, when she was looking into the sky, and was therefore annoyed. He strode firmly over to his open door, intending to remind Hinata of the training-session Hiashi-sama had scheduled for the two of them - and to beat that look out of her eyes - when Hinata, glancing around herself furtively, took out a small photograph and sighed over it.

Neji, Byakugan activated, peered through her at it. He realized it was a picture of Uzumaki Naruto and scoffed – then stiffened, remembering the bright blue eyes that blazed out of that tanned, striped-cheek face.

Blue eyes.

_Bright_ blue eyes, like no one else in Konoha had.

Rare eyes.

* * *

**tbc**


	3. You Deserve This

* * *

_ If She grow suddenly gracious -- reflect. Is it all for thee?  
The blackbuck is stalked through the bullock, and Man through jealousy_

- Kipling

* * *

Naruto was not in a very happy mood. Most of his friends had been put into the hospital by some mysterious assailant; Shikamaru still wasn't awake, though that might have been him sleeping at every occasion anyone had visited. The others, though awake, were still unwilling to say anything about their respective attacks, which meant they must have been horribly traumatic. 

Not even a big bowl of his favorite miso ramen could completely lift the blond shinobi out of his upset; though it _did_ help, as he devoured it at nearly his usual pace. The only ones left unscathed by the attack, if the assailant _was _targeting the Rookie 9, were him and the girls. He hoped that this meant the assailant wouldn't touch kunoichi, but just in case he had set a few of his Kage Bunshin to keep unobtrusive surveillance on Ino, Sakura and Hinata, dusting off the stealth skills he'd developed as a prankster.

And sometimes, when he refreshed the Bunshins by putting new ones in, he'd receive some absolutely _delightful _images in his head. He grinned to himself as he mentally replayed the experience of watching Sakura – via Kage Bunshin –sway around her kitchen (she'd moved into an apartment recently – he'd helped her – and was still impressed enough by the novelty to enjoy cooking whenever possible) as she fixed herself dinner.

Sakura with her hair slightly mussed. Sakura with smears of foodstuff on her face. Sakura in a little apron and a sleeveless shirt and wonderfully short shorts. Mm, yes.

He gave a little dreamy sigh, then shifted his mental focus onto Ino tending to her plants in the morning…

When suddenly he was interrupted by two fingers glowing with chakra attempting to close his tenketsu. Instinctively he backflipped out of the way, watching with horror as Hyuuga Neji demolished the bowl of soup he had just been finishing up.

Holy (_beep)_ on a (_beeping)_ stick. Hyuugas _could_ read minds! At a distance! He had to tell Neji what was up before the angry boy attempted to drive his hand deep into Naruto's ribcage. He'd already experienced that once, thanks very much.

"I swear, Neji, I only let the clones look at Ino and Sakura! Hinata's too, you know, _shy_ for that." It was the truth!

This didn't seem to be soothing her outraged cousin. Teuchi was beginning to throw meat cleavers indiscriminately at the two shinobi, subtly encouraging them to take their fight _outside_ his shop, so Naruto vaulted onto the ceiling using Neji's shoulders, and then ran upside-down out into the street, flinging himself onto the side of a building and scurrying up it like a treed fox.

Neji was right behind him, his Byakugan-dominated face in a rictus of anger. "You stay away from Tenten!" he yelled.

"Tenten? _Tenten?"_ Naruto wondered aloud. "I haven't been surveilling _Tenten…_let's see, have I ever peeked at her? Oh yeah, there was that time in…but that was like three, four months ago, you're only reacting now?"

Neji redoubled his attempts to reduce Naruto into an orange smear.

* * *

It was a gloomy group of kunoichi who met for tea and cake in a little café near Konoha's main road, what with most of their teammates in the hospital. And if they wanted some juicy gossip from their older friend about _their_ plan to snag Hyuuga Neji, as a pleasant distraction – they weren't going to get it. 

"He's just being _weird," _Tenten said mournfully, lifting a forkful of blueberry cheesecake to her lips.

"Yes, and this is different from his normal behavior _how?" _Ino said acidly, Sakura hurriedly butting in with, "_Do_ explain, Tenten-chan. What do you mean?" before Tenten could take offense or Hinata conclude that Ino – who dealt with her worry over her teammates by being even more vicious than usual – meant all Hyuugas were weird.

"Well…" Tenten said, chewing absentmindedly on her fork. "He doesn't come to the grounds as often – and sometimes he shows up all messy and scuffed and dusty. I think…" Her breath caught on a sob. "I think – _he's training with someone else!" _

She said this in the same tone as someone saying that they had caught their spouse in bed with a family member.

"And he, you know, he keeps asking and I keep hinting but he doesn't _do _anything. I think he's just playing with…"

"_NARUTO!" _

The four kunoichis' heads snapped around as the enraged scream ripped through the air, just in time to see an orange blur whip past them, followed closely by a white-cream one. They bolted to their feet and stampeded to the doorway, and managed to catch the two shinobi just vanishing around the corner.

"Let's go!" yelped Sakura, mentally running through the medical jutsu she'd have to use on either or both of them. Hinata and Tenten were already shooting ahead of her.

* * *

Naruto took his stand in the first clearing outside Konoha that he came to. His tactics lacked either the tricky bent of his prank-oriented mind or the subtle veneer of sophistication beaten into him by his instructors – he simply produced crowds of Kage Bunshin who tried to dog-pile Neji and stop the berserk Hyuuga's movements. Unfortunately, as Neji annihilated any Kage Bunshin he touched, the most Naruto could do was keep Neji occupied. 

He slipped into the battle himself, finally, accepting that even if it _was_ his fault – he _was_ a red-blooded male, how could Neji blame him – he'd better defend himself or risk being placed under obaa-chan's tender mercies for an indeterminate amount of time. He ducked underneath Neji's spinning kick, tried for an uppercut, dodged as Neji flowed around his fist and tried to slam into the beginning of the 64 Hands sequence.

"Dammit, Neji, I said I'm sorry!" Naruto yelled at him.

"You can't have her," Neji bellowed back, paying little if any attention to Naruto's protests. "I don't _care_ if Tenten likes you, I won't…"

"WHAT?!"

The scream came from five different throats – Naruto's, and then from Tenten, Ino, Hinata and Sakura. The two boys froze as they heard their female friends, turning to look at them. For a moment both sides only stared dumbly at each other.

Then Tenten was storming across the field, drawing to a halt before Neji with an air very much like a warhorse rearing before an enemy. "And just _where_, Hyuuga Neji, do you get off spreading stupid rumors like that?" she demanded. "And beating poor Naruto-kun for something that _isn't even true?!" _

"You…you said you liked him!" Neji said in his defense. "You said you liked the boy with the rare eyes…"

"And you thought I meant Naruto?" Tenten asked, her eyes wide with disbelief. "Neji, have you ever looked in a…For gods' sakes! Do you not remember when I said he was top of his class, pride of his clan? No offense meant, Naruto, but however many things he is, he _isn't _that_." _

"Well…" Neji stammered, now recalling the previous statements. "When…yes, you said that, but…I'd _talked_ to the others already, and even when they fit your descriptions you still said it was someone else, so Naruto was the only one left, and…" His eyes widened. "Did you mean…did you mean _Lee?" _

The girls' eyes, too, had widened as the truth had dawned on them.

"So when I…when I said those things about geniuses, clans, top-rankers…you thought I meant the other boys? And you…for _me…_Oh, _Neji!" _Tenten squealed, throwing her arms around him. "That's so_ sweet_!"

Neji staggered back slightly, a pink flush spreading across his Hyuuga-pale face. "Tenten?" he said, his voice pitched to a question, as hope built in his eyes.

"It was you, you idiot!" Tenten laughed, burying her face into his shoulder. "I meant I was in love with you!"

A huge smirk spread across the Hyuuga prodigy's face, twitching at the edges as it came perilously close to being an actual smile. His arms came around Tenten's waist, and she sighed happily as she returned his embrace. Their eyes met, and whatever they saw in each other's caused a glow of happiness – complete with bubbles and sparkles - to almost visibly spring up around them. This would have been the perfect time for a sweet, perfect, first-time-tender kiss –

- except that Neji was then attacked by one angry shinobi and two rather angrier kunoichi for his assaults upon their teammates, Tenten's suddenly choke-tight hold preventing him from escaping.

"I do love you, Neji, but honestly you deserve this."

* * *

ended. 

AN:

Wellup, it's done! I hope you guys enjoyed. I'm not entirely happy with the ending, but I had fun writing the start and middle so I decided to at least complete the fic. Hope it's not that bad.

A lot of people mentioned how idiotic Neji must be to forget the previous tags; believe me, I agonized over that until I realized I hadn't written the fic at all, and decided to make Neji homicidally-forgetful for the purpose of plot. Please to be accepting this plothole. bows


End file.
